Violence down in Syria’s al-Hol camp but conditions remain 'horrifying'
The Islamic State has been smuggling boys out of displacement camps to train in the Syrian desert.
A five-day raid that targeted Islamic State members inside northeast Syria’s sprawling al-Hol detention camp in March appears to have led to a reduction in killings there, the US military reported.
The raid led to the arrest of 125 people in the camp, including what security forces there say was a five-member assassination squad of Iraqi men believed to have been involved in a series of grisly murders in the camp.
Yet US CENTCOM assessed that the lull in violence may only be temporary, as an uptick of eight murders were recorded in the camp in June alone, according to a new report released by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
CENTCOM assesses that the Islamic State retains a “strong” presence in the camp, which houses more than 50,000 family members of IS fighters captured or killed during the war against the jihadist group.
